


A Birthday to Remember

by snekwami



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, a birthday present
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 15:37:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15318660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snekwami/pseuds/snekwami
Summary: When Alya had jokingly told her friends that she wanted her birthday present to be a date with Ladybug, she hadn’t expected them to take it seriously.





	A Birthday to Remember

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Miyotesse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miyotesse/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY @MIYOTESSE YOU ARE THE COOLEST FRIEND EVER AND I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!!!

When Alya had jokingly told her friends that she wanted her birthday present to be a date with Ladybug, she hadn’t expected them to take it seriously. They had already coordinated with her family, buying her all the new gadgets for the Ladyblog that she wanted, organizing a surprise party with all her classmates the way they had done with Marinette, and making sure that she had the best day she possibly could. It was all she could have asked for, and she didn’t expect anything else from them.

Then Ladybug knocked on her window that evening.

“Ladybug!” Alya opened the window and let the superhero in. “What are you doing here?”

Ladybug beamed at her, that dazzling heroic smile lighting a fire in her heart. “Wishing you a very happy birthday, of course!”

“Wait, you know about that? But how? I didn’t even put it on the Ladyblog or anything, I–”

“Your friends told me.”

“They did?” A blush was rising to her cheeks. If her friends had told Ladybug about her birthday, chances were that they had told her about her wish for a date too…

“Yes, and I can’t miss Rena Rouge’s birthday for anything.” Ladybug put her hands on Alya’s shoulders, looking right at her with those intense blue eyes. “You’re a part of our team now. I want to do something to show my appreciation for you.”

Alya gulped. It was hard to reply when freaking _Ladybug_ was standing so close, looking at her like that. Her brain just never worked properly around this girl.

“Come with me.”

Ladybug stepped back and held out her hand. Alya gently took it, a spark running through her as their fingers touched. All of a sudden Ladybug scooped her up into her arms and leapt out of the window with her into the cool night air.

It wasn’t the first time this had happened, of course. Ladybug had saved Alya from akumas this way plenty of times before. Alya was used to the wind rushing through her hair as Ladybug carried her around Paris, the feel of magical spandex on her skin, Ladybug’s face so very close to her own. But that was when she was actually in danger. This time there was no danger – this time, Ladybug was bridal carrying her by choice alone. It sent an odd ripple through her heart.

Ladybug took her over building after building, finally coming to a halt right at the top of the Eiffel Tower. This area was currently closed to tourists due to the large number of akuma attacks, so it had been quite a while since Alya had been up here, and never quite this late. As soon as Ladybug put her down she walked over to the railing and looked over the edge at the sea of lights far below them, stretching out into the distance.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Ladybug’s voice had been somewhat softer than usual. Alya turned to look back at her to see that she wasn’t even looking at the view – her thoughtful gaze was on Alya herself.

“Are these the kind of views you and Chat see all the time?” she asked, her fangirl side overtaking her. “Because this is so cool! It’s so nice up here, so weirdly quiet, so…” She managed to stop herself before saying the word _romantic_. Why could she never shut up around Ladybug, like a total dork?

“Yeah, we never get tired of this,” Ladybug said. “There’s something magical about being up here when no one else is around. You don’t get that so much when you come here as a civilian, peak tourist season.”

“Well thank you so much for bringing me up here. It’s such a nice birthday present.”

“That’s not the only present. Your friends also told me that… well…” The skin of Ladybug’s cheeks was slowly turning as red as her mask.

“Oh no, they didn’t.” Alya turned away in horror. “Oh my god. I’m gonna kill them.”

“It’s okay!” Ladybug laughed nervously, taking a step closer. “I’m glad they told me. That way I can give you the birthday date with me that you always wanted. Though not up here, it’s too windy and cold. I’ve got a nice restaurant in mind, if that’s okay with you.”

Alya just stared at her wordlessly for several seconds. Was this really happening? Was Ladybug really, actually asking her out? In real life?

“B-but…” She took a deep breath. “I mean, I’d love to! But if you’re a superhero, aren’t you supposed to like, keep a low profile? If people see me having dinner with you, won’t that… I don’t know…”

“Don’t worry about that,” Ladybug said, walking over to stand beside Alya, leaning back on the railing. “It’s true, if word got out that Ladybug and Alya Césaire had a thing going on, that would put you in danger. You already get into enough trouble as it is.”

She grinned and gently poked Alya’s nose. Was that… was that _flirting?_

“So instead,” Ladybug continued, “I’ll have dinner with you as my civilian self.”

The words took a few seconds to process. “Wait, you mean you’re gonna tell me your secret identity?!”

“Yes.”

That was everything Alya had ever wanted, everything she had hoped for ever since the first time she saw Ladybug and started up her blog. Finding out Ladybug’s identity was so important to her that she had even been akumatized over it! Every time she had come close, Ladybug had always evaded her. But now she was just going to straight-up _tell_ her?

“I know you’re shocked,” Ladybug said, seeing the look on Alya’s face. “My kwami was shocked too when I suggested it. I haven’t even told Chat Noir, after all. But I already know your identity as Rena Rouge, don’t I? You’ve kept her a secret, so I know you can keep me a secret too. And plus… I know you. In real life, I mean.”

Now Ladybug was looking aside slightly, a nervous hand rubbing the back of her neck. Her sudden change in demeanour seemed so very familiar somehow, but Alya just couldn’t place it.

“You know me?” she asked. “Do you go to my school or something?”

“Yep.”

Alya pumped a fist in the air. “Aha, I knew that history textbook counted for something!”

Ladybug chuckled. “You’re right. And anyway, I’ve sort of, um… had a crush on you for a while now. You’re so cool, you know? Always so upbeat and optimistic, never afraid to get into the fray for a scoop, always there for me, super pretty…”

The heat was flooding into Alya’s cheeks so fast she was half convinced she was simply going to melt. Sure, she’d had a celebrity crush on Ladybug since first meeting her, but the idea of Ladybug actually _liking her back_ had never occurred to her at all. Hearing all these compliments was enough to make her dizzy.

“Ladybug, I… I like you too,” she managed to say, noticing rather suddenly that they were standing very close indeed, their arms touching. “You’re a hero, and you’re so brave and kind and…”

“I know, you write things like that on the Ladyblog every single day.” Ladybug lay her hand over Alya’s, resting over the railing. “I want you to know that I really appreciate it. You give me the motivation I need to keep going, day after day, even when Hawk Moth doesn’t give me a break when I have loads of homework and my parents are expecting me to help them in the bakery…”

Alya was just nodding along, unable to take her eyes off Ladybug’s beautiful face. Then she did a double take.

Did Ladybug just say…

Bakery???

“…and you’re always standing up to Chloé, which is nice because it saves me a bit of energy, being class rep on top of being a superhero is no easy job, I can tell you…”

Bakery. Class rep. The pieces were falling into place – no, more like _crashing_ into place as the realization hit Alya.

“Marinette?!” she whispered.

Ladybug just took a step back, closed her eyes, and said, “Spots off.”

A flash of light later, the superhero standing before her had detransformed into none other than Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Alya took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes, and put her glasses back on – yes, that was indeed Marinette, her best friend from school, grinning at her nervously and waiting for a reaction.

It just wasn’t sinking in. Marinette – _her_ Marinette – was Ladybug, the saviour of Paris, the girl of her dreams. _Marinette_ was the one who had saved her all that time ago and sparked a new obsession in her life. _Marinette_ was the one whose identity she had been trying to figure out for the past several months.

_Marinette_ was the one who had asked her out to dinner just now.

Marinette was Ladybug. Marinette had a crush on her.

“Alya, are you okay?” Marinette’s smile had fallen, her expression now one of concern. “I’m sorry, I know that was such a huge bombshell to drop with no notice, I just… I just wanted to tell you how I feel, and I thought it was only fair to let you know, a-and…”

It was Marinette. The whole time, it had been Marinette.

Her wonderful, amazing, heroic, selfless Marinette.

“It’s you!” Alya screeched, leaping forward to hug her. “I can’t believe it, oh – Marinette! You’re a superhero! You’re – you’re Ladybug – you–”

Her nerves gave way into laughter, and she pulled Marinette even closer to hug her tight. Marinette began laughing too, relieved.

“Thanks for taking it well,” she mumbled, her face pressed into Alya’s hair.

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I?”

“I hid this from you for so long!”

“Hey, it’s okay, I know keeping your secret is important! I mean, I didn’t tell you I’m Rena Rouge, so…” She stopped speaking, it only just dawning on her that technically she was hugging Ladybug.

“Well thanks anyway,” Marinette said. “And, um, I meant what I said about taking you to dinner.”

Alya wondered if Marinette would be able to feel how warm her face was. She had never quite considered Marinette in a romantic way, or at least not consciously – sure, Marinette was objectively gorgeous, and Alya had definitely thought about kissing her every now and then. But being so starstruck by Ladybug had blinded her to the possibility that her friendship with Marinette could ever be anything more than that. She had just assumed Marinette was still into Adrien, and not given it a second thought.

But now she allowed herself to consider it. She let herself think about having dinner with Marinette, going out on ice cream dates together, spending afternoons doing each other’s hair and nails interspersed with sweet kisses…

Wow. She wanted that, alright.

Laying a hand on the side of Marinette’s face, she gave her a bright smile. “I’d definitely love to have dinner with you.”

Marinette was blushing. “Aww, Alya…”

“In fact,” Alya said, gently brushing her thumb across Marinette’s freckled cheek, “it doesn’t have to be a one-time thing. You can feel free to take me out to dinner any time, babe.”

“Really? So, um… you’ll be my girlfriend?”

Just hearing the question set Alya’s heart ablaze. She nodded. “Yeah! Who would say no to being Ladybug’s girlfriend? This is the best birthday present _ever_.”

“Yay, I’m so glad!”

For several seconds they just looked at each other, blushes growing on their cheeks, until a particularly cool gust of wind reminded Alya of the existence of things in the world besides Marinette.

“So uh, you gonna transform and get us down from here?”

“Oh, right – of course!” Marinette stepped back again. “Tikki, spots on!”

Her kwami, a tiny red one from the glimpse Alya got, zoomed out of her pocket and into her earrings. Within a second Marinette was back to being Ladybug again, and stepped forwards to whisk Alya off her feet before she even knew what was happening.

“Maybe I’ll introduce you to my kwami later,” she whispered in Alya’s ear. “She’s been the best wing-kwami ever.”

“In that case I definitely have to meet her, and personally thank her.”

“She’ll love that!”

She giggled, a strange Marinette-like giggle that was unusual to hear coming from Ladybug. Alya found that she actually quite liked it. And she definitely liked the feeling of knowing that it was Marinette carrying her right now, under the spots and the mask. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, her own classmate, her own best friend, her own _girlfriend_.

“You ready?” Ladybug asked, hopping up onto the railing.

“Yeah! You’ll take me somewhere nice, won’t you?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve been saving up for ages now. Let’s go!”

Cradling Alya just a little closer, she hopped off the railing and away into the night – a night that was quickly shaping up to be the best night ever.


End file.
